The Circle
Book Notes kitt decided around 15:08 on 14 May 2016 to publish this:
Okay, I understand the world described in this book: the one where no one has any privacy because, well, a shit named Zuckerberg declared privacy is dead and no longer the social norm, then spent $100,000,000 protecting his own privacy, but it doesn't mean that I agree with it or like it or didn't struggle to throw this book across the room when I was reading it.
The gist of it is there's this big social media payments company that forces its users to log in with real names then promptly begins absorbing everything so that it knows everything about its users and peer pressures its users into sharing everything, connects everything, tracks everything, until the concept of privacy is destroyed. It follows the journey of an idiot 20-something woman, Mae, as she becomes a sheep and stops thinking for herself, acting only on the whims of others, the opinions of others.
I wanted to throw this book across the room a thousand times, pick it up, and throw it across the room another thousand times. Sure, "sharing is caring," fine, yes, but forced sharing is bullshit. And "privacy is stealing"? YES, the obvious conclusion of a surveillance state, which is the direction the world is going, where, again, those in power stay in power.
Related: instantaneous, required democracy is called a lynch mob.
Eggers got his point across with this one. Problem is, the people who are listening already knew, and the people who refuse to listen? Well, they kinda deserve the future they get.
I recommend this for the rage inducing stupidity of the sadly realistically written main character, and the cautionary tale told.
Ennui
Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 12:26 on 13 May 2016I removed all of the games from my phone.
I removed them because I was wasting time playing them, time I'd rather be using on either more productive tasks or more relaxing tasks. Originally I added them for something to do while I was between tasks, waiting in line at the grocery store, waiting for a meeting to start, waiting for the doctor, waiting, waiting, waiting. I didn't mind having the mindless activities to fill the time, because I enjoyed them, they were distracting.
Which is the point of them: to be distracting.
I started playing them when I wanted a break, so I'd sit on the couch for hours playing the stupid little 10x10 or 2048 or sudoku games.
When I realized I was using them to distract myself away from thinking, away from solving problems I needed to work through, away from pondering questions I needed to answer, I deleted them. I deleted the two I was playing most frequently, then the others as I found them still on my phone. I deleted applications I wasn't using, didn't need. I cleaned off my phone down to apps I actually use, and ones that I didn't feel were distracting.
So, now that I don't have the games to distract me, I'm alone with myself in those quiet moments. The transition has been both abrupt and fascinating. Suddenly not having my games to distract me means I have bits of time to think, to plan, to brainstorm, to realize how many things I'm unhappy about, to be grateful for the many things that are good in my life, to remember the moments of joy and love, to cringe at the embarrassments of plenty, to consider my next 10 moves in life, to wonder how people filled their days a hundred years ago, to dream up new things I want to exist in this world, and simply to be.
Sometimes I'm struck with overwhelming ennui, where I wonder how the other 14 billion people now and before me survived this existence. Thus far, I have been attributing such feelings to low blood sugar, had some chocolate, and moved on. I'm going no-sugar again, so that little trick isn't going to work any longer.
I've been off twitter, and trying to stay off twitter as YET ANOTHER DISTRACTION. Instagram's algorithmic ordering of photos has destroyed the platform's ability to tell a story.
With those two gone, I'm rather left with my life goals as things to fill my days. It's been nice. This week, I will finally manage to finish all of the items I tasked myself with last Sunday. It's a great feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction, being able to complete my weekly to-do list and know that I'm closer to my life goals as a result. I like knowing that I didn't fill my days with busy-work and distractions. I may not achieve all of my life goals, but, as has been said, the journey is the better part anyway.
